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32 s p f i n j 1 * a o 1
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I C i I e s 7
California Nightmare
Dead Cities: A Natural History by Mike
Davis. New York, NY: New Press, 2002.
28$ pp. $26.95 hardcover.
Reviewed Ity Alex Licbtenstein
Mike Davis stands out as one of the most
original thinkers on the current intellectu-
al scene — part social historian, pan
urban theorist, part cultural critic, part
apocalyptical environmentalist seer. Best
known for City of Quartz, his 1990 tour
de force portrait of Los Angeles, Davis
possesses an uncanny ability to capture
the intricate workings of contemporary
urban political economy. In his work, the
abstractions of capital flow and urban
design decisions have a concrete impact
on the everyday world in which new
immigrants and dispossessed working
people struggle for dignity. Not since
Carey McWUliams wrote about Southern
California in the 19.10s and 1940s has a
social critic so unerringly captured the
tension between radical social possibility
and rampant capitalist greed that has
shaped the region's social history and
urban ecology.
Head Cities, a collection of Davis's
essays from the last decade, offers the
opportunity to trace the evolution of his
thinking since the appearance ol ( in oi
Quartz, Recently, Davis has turned his
attention from the urban to the natural
landscape, turning away from the social
disasters of disinvestment, so-called urban
"renewal," and the assault on working
class communities that characterized the
remaking of L.A. in the 1980s, to face the
ecological crisis gripping the urbanizing
American West ("ecocide in Marlboro
Country,™ in his telling phrase), bringing
these newer concerns together with his
older work, these essays allow us to take
the measure of Davis's cultural critique and
to evaluate the dire pronouncements that
(liaiactcrizcd his previous efforts to "exca-
vate the future" ol southern California.
The sledgehammer prose that made
Davis so much fun to read in situ holds
up less well over time; some of his essays
have become historical artifacts rather
than the precise inventories of disaster
ihey seemed at the time. Davis's imagina-
tion is currently captivated by what he
terms "neo-catastrophism," the notion
thai sudden, cataclysmic events can rup-
ture the fabric of social and natural histo-
ry. In retrospect, this apocalyptic feel is
what always gave Davis's descriptions ol
l.A.'s past and bis prognoses ot its future
so much power. Ten years down the road,
however, the sky has not yet fallen. One
c.in'i help but wonder how the past
decade has home out, or refuted, his
early writings' millenialisi vision ol immi-
nent urban collapse and social anarchy.
For example. Davis proclaimed in a
1990 essay reprinted here, that "the
social costs ol |I..A.'s| downtown growth
will rise steeply in the next decade." but
though the assertion could easily be
measured, there is no indication whether
it proved correct. Similarly, the giant
sinkhole that opened ai the intersection
of I lolly wood and Vermont in 1991,
described then by Davis as "the biggest
transportation fiasco in modem history,"
has been paved over and now anchors a
trendy mixed commercial, residential, and
ethnic enclave, which Davis doesn't
acknowledge. And his brilliant 1992
"autopsy" of L.A., which charted the
racial and class resegregarion of the city
in the wake of Reaganism, cries out for
an update that notes the recent (thwart-
ed I attempt of the San Fernando valley to
secede from the city, or recent signs of
genuine grassroots renewal of the labor
movement. In general, a bit more self-
reflection on Davis's pan, historieizing
the context of these essays, as well as
updating their significance a decade after
the L.A. riots, would have made Dead
Cities a Stunning achievement. Now it
stands mostly as an inventory ot Davis's
uneven oeuvre.
That said, there is no one else so
able, with a few telling anecdotes, to
capture the social and ecological blind-
ness that afflicts the avatars ot urban
development in the American West.
"l.as Vegas," Davis argues convincingly,
"demonstrates the fanatical persistence
"Las Vegas," Davis argues,
"demonstrates the
fanatical persistence of
an environmentally and
socially bankrupt system
of human settlement."
of an environmentally and socially bank-
rupt system of human settlement," a sys-
tem "stupefied by the ready availability
of artificially cheap water, power, and
land" — a system for which l.os Angeles
remains the template.
Ironically, while Davis's dystopian
catastrophism merits an update, his
"aging socialist's*1 he.in still clings to sti
fled Utopian possibility. In a thrilling
essay, written |tist last year, Davis offers
some autobiographical musings, describ-
ing the alienation and rebelliousness that
animated white working-class teenagers
in the southern California of his youth
(circa I960), and sparked a series ot
"teen riots." This was not the incipient
New left of Berkeley or Cambridge. "We
seethed m jealousy against everyone who
lived at a beach, spent their nights in a
coffee house, or went to an elite universi-
ty," Davis recalls. Yet despite such class
resentment, he and his friends still caught
the wave of "the possibility of free time
and space beyond the program of Fordist
society" that was "the vital cultural sub-
strate of the sixties."
In the end, it remains difficult to
match this brief glimpse of an alternative
history of California with Davis's relent-
less pessimism about the possibility of a
humane urbanity. Yet, in one of the clos-
ing pieces in Dead (Hies, Davis examines
the imaginative fiction of urban destruc-
tion, post-apocalyptical narratives of
flowers blooming from the rums ol mod-
ern London. So too, from beneath the
rubble of I os Angeles's failed dreams, per-
haps hope and renewal may still sprout.
Xtremcly Fabulous PreFab
Xtreme Mouses by Coitrtenay Smith iimi
Scan Topham. New York: I'reslel. 2002,
XX pages, illustrated. $2l).l>5 paperback.
Prefab b\ Bryan Burkhart and Alison
Arieff, Layton, Utah: Cibbs Smith
Publisher, 2002. 160 pages, illustrated.
S39.9S hardback.
Reviewed Ity Janet Moore
"We are all architects," boldly proclaim
Courtcnay Smith and Sean Topham at the
start of their new book, Xtreme Houses.
The authors explain that although they
really are not architects, they have shaped
various abodes to meet their individual
needs throughout their lives. This, they
conclude "makes us architects along with
everyone else who has made a decision
aboul ihe place they call home."
With this introduction Xtreme Houses
launches into a clever and interesting foray
into the world of on-the-edge architectural
design, focusing on houses that challenge
traditional methods or attempt to solve
problems. Similarly, in Prefab, Allison
Arieff and Hryan burkhart examine how
the "prelab" market has enlarged from
mere Quonset huts to include creative, cus-
tomized and often upscale options, both
books reveal some of the architectural
community's current solutions for social ills
such as homelessness and overcrowding.
They also discuss how consumers are using
technology to take a more hands-on role in
the architectural design ot their abodes —
even the prefabricated models.
because the bonks covei similar lop
ICS, they occasionally and predictably
overlap, both highlight Rotterdam-based
architect Kas Oosterhuis to illustrate how
clients can customize prefabricated mod-
ules over the Internet. I lis web savvy
clients become virtual co-designers of
their own "Variomatic Houses" by using
his interactive web site. Ihey can person-
alize their prefabricated dwellings by
selecting from an online menu of room
dimensions, construction materials, and
the like. Oosterhuis' clients can order .1
scale model or a set of drawings of their
planned house — and even apply for
building permits — online.
Both books also look at the cuiiing-
edge work of environmentally conscious
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Prefab
examines how Han uses wooden book-
shelves to support his Furniture House,
making the 176-pound prefabricated
shelving units the home's main structural
support. Readers of Ktreme I louses wi l l
see how Ban actually supports his [anions
Paper House with large, inexpensive
paper tubes of recycled cardboard.
Like Ban, many of the featured
architects experiment with inexpensive,
environmentally friendly building materi-
als. For example, Xtreme Houses
describes how London-based architect
Sarah Wigglesworth incorporated cheap
straw bales into her own house, fire-
proofing the straw with lime and then
protecting it from the elements with cor-
rugaied sheeting. Similarly, Michael
Reynolds has helped clients from coun-
tries as disparate as Bolivia, Canada and
Scotland to fashion used tires, bottles and
...ins nun independent biospheres, <>i
"earthships." Not only do these huts use
discarded waste as construction materials,
but they also maximize heat efficiency.
Some designers are even trying to
create housing from abandoned metal
containers. In Xtreme Houses, artist
Vito Acconci turns six hollowed-out cars
into a crazily stacked abode complete
with a kitchen and bathroom. On a
more practical note, in South Africa
architect Michael I loenes wires together
surplus soda cans to create inexpensive
modular shacks. Coated with anticorro-
sion paint and resting on a foundation
of concrete-filled cans, the buildings cost
a mere $800, compared to the $2,400
cost of a less-well insulated concrete-
block hut. Sunilai ly, "( ilobal I'e.ict
Containers" addresses Jamaica's home-
less problem by turning shipping con
t&iners into cheap housing.
Shipping containers occasionally also
appeal to the upscale market. According
to Xtreme Houses, the group LOT/EK
altered one into an additional bedroom
and patio for an existing New York pent-
house. The Guzman Penthouse project
thus managed to recycle an unwanted
shipping container and simultaneously
create additional housing out of a
cramped urban space,
Like the Guzman Penthouse, Swedish
civil engineers Annika and Hakan Olsson
have experimented with prefabricated
penthouses for tony London neighbor-
hoods. Prefab explains how the luxury
modules are assembled in Sweden,
shipped abroad and then hoisted by crane
onto London rooftops. Once plumbed
and outfitted ro the buyer's sped Ilea in ins,
these units sell for upwards ol $4 mil l ion.
The units' magnificent London views sup-
posedly justify their high price. It's no
surprise that the Olssons also hope to try
their luck in New York.
And then there's Stefan Khcrsiadt's
solution 10 urban overcrowding for the
less affluent set: the Rucksack i louse.
Literally hung outside an apartment win-
dow by nylon straps, this plywood, alu-
minum and I'lexiglas box gives apartment
residents 80 additional square feet of liv-
ing space.
Both books demonstrate that the
niche market for portable private spaces is
growing. Prefab shows a number of hous-
es that are easily Transported because they
rest tin stilts rather than permanent foun-
dations. Lor a mere $50,00(1, a purchaser
can buy KI-"N Systems' "SLI-SI" model; not
only will a customized contemporary
mobile home on stilts be manufactured
and delivered in five weeks, but once
unloaded from the truck, this dream home
can he assembled in a mere five hours.
Lrue to its title, Xtreme Houses fea-
tures more outlandish examples ol mobile
housing, such as the inflatable "Instant
Home" developed by Valeska Peschke.
This Berlin-based artist carts her 150-
squarc-foot vinyl house around on a
truck, and blows it up in about two min-
utes. Thanks to its portability she has
camped out easily in both deserts and
parking lots.
( rossing into the fashion realm,
Parisian Studio Orta invented "refugee
wear" bodysuits that convert into tents.
The studio's founder, Lucy Orta, is quot-
ed as saying that "clothes are hilly enti-
tled to become architectural dwellings."
In case several travelers want to turn
their clothes into a communal architec-
tural statement, her "Modular Architec-
ture" model allows nomads to zip their
111 c11 vulu.il suits into .1 single shelter,
And lor those who jusr need a quick
retreat from the world, the Parisian group
PO.D has created prototypes for retreat
pods. Made of protective pillows, the
pods can be packed away in a backpack,
then easily inflated into a comforting,
albeit temporary, private space.
So what inspires these architects to
design such mm traditional dwellings?
Sometimes it's personal experience, like
that of Los Angeles architect Jennifer
Siegal. I ler stmt selling hot dogs from a
portable kiosk, as her grandfather had
done, stimulated her "Portable House"
design. Sometimes it's an architect's per-
sonal commitment to the environment
and desire to solve societal problems.
Sometimes it's the sheer challenge ol 1.1k
ing a seemingly mundane concept like
"prcfahrication" and creatively stretch inn
it. And sometimes it might just be to have
a bit of fun. In Prefah and Xtreme
Houses we learn that even tinglainorous
prefabrication, in the most "xtreme"
case, can In- far-out, frivolous, fascinating
and. occasionally, prcm fabulous.